is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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moving, shaking.
I�ve been in New York for the past few days, packing up and getting quotes on my move. A guy from Allied Van Lines came by on Friday to give me an estimate, and it was funny to think about what it must be like to look at people�s crap for a living, tell them how much it weighs and how many boxes it will fit into, and then offer them a dollar amount for moving it. Within 20 minutes he said, �you must be a philosophy major.� I told him I�m a philosophy professor. Then he told me about some finger puppets he and his wife had of Socrates, NEEtzkee (pretty clear right away this is Nietzsche) and SarTAR (took me a moment to realize this means Sartre). He�s the only moving-quote guy I�ve ever encountered who hasn�t lectured me on how much cheaper it would be to move if I had fewer books.
And then, within 40 minutes he had figured me out. He was working through the estimate and talking about insurance options, and said: �you don�t have really nice furniture� a couple of good pieces but otherwise nothing priceless. But you do have a lot of expensive clothes and shoes.� Heh. It�s not like he thumbed through the garments in my closet, but apparently his eye is well-trained indeed. Then he added, �Unless you spend all your time at Century 21!� (Designer discount store in NY. Indeed, in the past I have found great buys there, but it is not so much fun to contend with the crowds, etc., so I haven�t been in years.) (I�m all about eBay now.)
Now I�m waiting for someone from Bekins to come. The Allied guy already showed me the ratings of all the companies, where his is on top and Bekins is on the bottom, so he feels pretty confident I�ll be calling him later today.
Over the weekend Gus and I got to hangout with my cousin, his wife and their three kids, including a 2-week old baby. My cousin is currently living in one of the fanciest New York houses I�ve ever had someone I know live in. You know, upper east side, just off 5th Avenue, a 5-floor one-family house with backyard and various terraces and balconies. Fancy cousin! He is renting it for at least two years. It was fun to see them all and get a house tour. And see the GUEST ROOM, where I am certain I will sometimes find myself staying.
Meanwhile, in the other part of my life, I am having a great time getting to know my new job, putting together the program I am supposed to be putting together, and setting up my new office with cute art and nice lamps, etc. It�s looking good. I�ll post some pictures some time.
However, I am also stuck in a bizarre trapezoidal human-relations structure with three other people. It�s not a huge thing, but there is some �concern� somewhere about what my role is in one group of people at the new job. When I talk to any one of the three other people in the trapezoid, each one of them will tell me that it is a problem the other two have but that the person I am talking to has no problem at all. So, well, someone is not telling the truth, and perhaps all of them are not telling the truth, or are only telling partial truths, etc. It is sometimes confusing, usually annoying, occasionally offensive, but mostly just, well, human. I am certain that if I wait it out with some patience, time combined with some diplomacy on my part will fix it. It is the perfect example of how people (in this case, me) can become burdened with a responsibility they did nothing to deserve. You fall into a situation prepared by others and there it is, a pile of refuse, waiting for you. You could take the liberal legalist route and say it�s not your job to clean up the crap or even to deal with it, because you did nothing to cause it. And yet that would just mean you�re a big baby who doesn�t understand how the world works. If you don�t clean it up, there you are living with a big pile of refuse. No one wins.
That doesn�t mean that you won�t sometimes get your feelings hurt or feel offended by it all. But the pile is still there.
I think the same analogy holds for some attitudes toward environmental disaster and various demands of justice, local and global. People like to think they aren�t responsible for anything they didn�t do or intend. But people who think that aren�t thinking very clearly. Sure, they aren�t LEGALLY responsible for such things. But what kind of world do they want to live in? And what does THAT world require of them? It requires more than legal responsibility.
9:18 a.m. - November 23, 2009
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